Chicago-Photo.com

The Centennial Fountain

Located at McClurg Ct and the Chicago River, the Nicholas J. Melas Centennial Fountain was built in 1989 for the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. The fountain goes off every hour during the summer months. The idea was to have an arch of water start on the north bank of the river and fall on the south bank. Unfortunately, when it goes off, there’s water all over the place. Some blame it on bad math and engineering, others on the fact that you can’t really completely control nature (water in this case). Anyway, when it does go off almost all boat traffic on the river stops. It’s not mandatory. All the tour boats that will end up around the fountain when it goes off and would have to go through the water, ask their passengers if they wish to just wait for it to stop or go through. If there’s an unanimous agreement to go through the water jet, the boat will. It’s pretty nice to watch.